Chapter 04
“Very well,” Carlisle replied with a sigh. “I do hope you know what you’re doing Bella, I do not like it when my children are being bullied.” He turned on his heel and headed back inside.
“What a prick,” Rebekah huffed as she walked around the car to stand on the other side of Bella. “And who in their right mind has a glass house? You’d think that with the amount they sparkle they’d live in a home without any windows.”
“We’re in the middle of a forest,” Bella waved her hand around towards the trees before looking at Kol, who appeared to be worried. “What?”
“You do realize there’s eight of them and only one of Rebekah, don’t you?”
She caressed his arm with her fingers and bravely smiled at him. “They won’t physically hurt me. If they wanted to, they would have done so already.”
Rebekah huffed. “I’d like to see them try.”
Bella rolled her eyes when she saw Edward walk out of the house with Jasper in tow and she could feel how Kol took a step closer to her, just to be safe.
“Bella,” he greeted her with his soft, gentlemanly voice which he used on her most of the time and stopped a few steps away from her. “I hope you don’t mind I brought Jasper out with me, to ensure everyone stays calm.”
“There’s no need for that, Edward,” Bella said as she shook her head. “We’re not here to hurt any of you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Rebekah muttered under her breath, making Jasper snap his focus to her. “Oh right, vampires,” she smiled at him. “It’s easy to forget.”
“Why are they here?” Edward asked as he relaxed his stance and held out his hand for her to take, but she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Bella could feel Jasper’s influence on her and it made her angry. “We could have easily talked this out with just the two of us.”
“No, we couldn’t,” she replied as she looked at him, pushing her hands into her pockets. “Because you would have just sweet-talked me back into that house.”
“But Bella, that’s where you belong, with us. With me.”
“Do I?” Why did his begging and repetitiveness ever work on her? Had she been that desperate to have a stupid boyfriend? Well yes. Boyfriends were good. Demanding little shits like Edward weren’t.
“Of course you do, we took care of you, made sure you got everything you needed, I don’t see why it has to change.”
“Do I get a say in the matter?”
Edward was quiet for a moment and then shook his head. “Oh, I see,” he then let out a small chuckle as he pointed at Kol and Rebekah. “A couple of days with the Original vampires and their… human witch pet and you think you can defy me? Bella, this is not you. You’re sick. Come inside, let Carlisle check you over.”
Kol had been quiet up until that point but couldn’t help but snort. “Have you even heard yourself talk, mate?”
“It’s okay, Kaleb,” Bella whispered and placed her hand back on his arm.
“No, it’s not, Bella, and frankly, if I could, I would have hit him in the face.”
Edward grinned at that before Rebekah took a step forward. When Edward noticed that, he almost jumped his step back. Chicken. “Hey now, let’s all stay civil here,” he said with his hands raised before addressing himself to Bella again. “They’ve poisoned your mind, Bella, this is not you.”
“Maybe not, but I haven’t been this clear-minded since before you and I started to date before I got sucked into your world.”
“Haven’t we given you everything you needed? Haven’t we taken care of you? Protected you?”
“Out of whose interest, Edward? And why did I need protecting in the first place? You even had to protect me from him,” she said as she nodded towards Jasper. “Because he still hasn’t got his bloodlust under control and sees me as a snack.”
“That’s not true, Bella,” Jasper said, visibly hurt. “You’re not a snack.”
“Sure she is,” Rebekah said with a nod. “But that doesn’t mean you have to eat her. Besides, it’s pathetic that you’re feeding on animals. I’d go bonkers if I had to do that. No wonder your bloodlust isn’t under control.”
“What do you want from me, Bella?” Edward said, his impatience clearly bubbling to the surface. “I’ve already given you—“
“What I want,” Bella said as she took a step or two towards him, trying to hide the fact she was nervous. “Is my stuff I requested. What I want after that, is for you and your family to leave me and my loved ones alone. No more denting my dad’s truck and certainly not killing any more wolves. Thanks to you, I am no longer welcome there.”
“Then why are they right behind you?” Edward pointed to an area behind the car and from the foliage appeared three wolves. From what she could tell it was Jacob, because of the brown color. Paul, silver fur, and the huge black block of muscle was Sam next to him. All three of them with their teeth bared and growling as they circled around the car to stand next to Bella, Kol, and Rebekah.
Bella’s bemusement only got interrupted by Kol and Rebekah, who were snickering at the horse-sized stuffed animal like looking wolves. “Those are your wolves?” Rebekah laughed.
Paul, who was closest to Rebekah, snarled at her.
“What are you doing here?” Bella said as she whacked Jacob on his big snout. He snorted in return. “I told you not to hurt him.”
Before Bella knew it, the remaining wolves – Leah, Collin, Brady, and Jared – had come out of the shadows and had launched themselves on top of Jasper. Jasper desperately tried to fight them off but had difficulty to do so. Sam took a leap and stood between Edward and Jasper while Paul had joined the rest of the pack to hold Jasper down while they were ripping him apart.
“Stop!” Bella cried out and tried to walk towards them, but Jacob pushed her towards Kol, who tightly wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “No, let me go,” she pleaded as she tried to see what was happening.
“Maybe it’s best if you don’t watch, Cuddles,” Kol said quietly as he saw how Rebekah had gone over to Edward and held him tight so he couldn’t help out Jasper. The wolves worked fast, he was impressed by that, as they tore Jasper apart limb from limb. It was interesting to hear how it sounded much like someone trying to grate metal like you grated cheese.
She covered her ears with her hands, the sound of Jasper being ripped apart shot right through her bones. How did the wolves get the jump on Jasper and Edward? Had she been the distraction? Bella was furious and worried they would truly kill Jasper and that sickened her. Part of her wished that nobody had to get hurt, but the wolves wanted their vengeance and two vampires out in the open were a prime target. She knew they wouldn’t hurt Edward, wanting Bella to have her revenge too, but this was wrong. What if the wolves got hurt?
Rebekah had the biggest grin on her face as she held the struggling Edward back while keeping an eye on the house to see if the other vampires would come out, but it appeared that even they were afraid of a pack of wolves who were mauling their family member. Even the brown wolf – Kol suspected it was Jacob – was on the lookout.
The whole ordeal took less than a minute before the big muscular one howled and the wolves ran off with parts of Jasper in their mouths, leaving enough for the family to mourn as the venom seeped into the ground. Rebekah let go of Edward and in one swift movement, threw him across the yard into a tree as the family emerged from the house now the wolves were gone. “I suggest we leave,” she said with a smile and got behind the wheel of the car while Kol took Bella with him on the back seat, still trying to make sure she didn’t see the body on the ground.
It was painful for him to watch as Bella went into shutdown mode. She was clinging on to him while she quietly sobbed and he didn’t quite understand why. Jasper was one of the people who had manipulated her, made sure she felt compliant and the toy wolves were retaliating for the death of one of their own, it was only justified that it happened. Maybe it shouldn’t have happened in front of her, but what else did she expect? These particular vampires needed to be ripped to shreds and then set alight so they can’t fix themselves. Was she upset because the wolves were indeed strong enough to help her or that they did it without warning? She needed to be able to do this herself later on, albeit with magic but was she really going to expect it’d be easy?
On the other hand, maybe her reaction was the right one. It wasn’t as if it had been a clean kill, the wolves had been frantic, knowing they had to hurry up before anyone else had the chance to register what was going on. He killed a lot of people back when he was a vampire and didn’t think any of it.
It all changed when he came back as a human, but the memories were still there and they didn’t bother him. Why would it? It all happened in the past. In all honestly, he was glad the wolves took their revenge, it was well deserved and it meant that they didn’t have to do all the work if the Cullens and the wolves would go to war.
However, he could see why Bella didn’t want any harm to come to the wolves, as the brown one had shown, they did somewhat care for her and that made them an ally. It was certainly something to talk about.
When they got back to the house, Charlie had left them a note saying he had been called into work – again – and this was a good thing seeing as it would be difficult to explain the state Bella was in without Rebekah getting to Charlie first. Kol set Bella down on the sofa and wrapped a blanket around her as Rebekah was making them tea. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” he said when Bella looked at him with puffy brown eyes.
“Oh don’t feel sorry for the girl, Kol,” Rebekah said as she was grabbing mugs from the cupboard. “You know as well as I do that she needed to see that.”
“Rebekah…”
“What?” She snapped as she looked at him from the kitchen. “She’s hellbent on taking revenge on her own, at least the wolves showed her what she has to do when the time comes.”
“Yes, and we still have a long way to go before that, Bekah,” Kol shot at her. “She still needs to get her magic under control too, and can’t do that now, can we?”
“I understand why she wants revenge, hell, I want revenge for her but why can’t I just do it? Why does she need to be the one to do it? I can do it swiftly and I can get rid of the bodies. No one will ever know.”
“You know very well how it feels when the choice is being taken away from you,” he replied. “We’ll stick to the plan for now, there’s still time.”
Rebekah huffed as she placed the mugs on the table in front of her brother and the human girl. Seeing the wolves tear Jasper apart had been fascinating, thrilling, even, and she wanted to kill something herself. Mostly out of boredom and frustration that she wasn’t allowed to do anything. She had thought it would be easier when they initially planned to drive up to Forks with Bella but found it hard not to go against her wishes.
“Are you two done?” Bella asked as she looked at the siblings. “I’m fine, I think. And you’re both right.”
“We are?” Kol blinked at her. “Both of us?”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod as she reached for her mug of tea. “I have seen vampires being ripped apart by other vampires before. It’s just that it was shocking to see the wolves doing it right in front of me. It wasn’t as clean as when Laurent and James were being killed. I also find I no longer have to worry about them, they managed to surprise Jasper of all people. Even Edward didn’t know what was coming and that’s something seeing as he hears everyone’s thoughts.”
“Then what happened?” Rebekah demanded as she sat down in a chair, clutching her mug of tea. “You looked like you were not entirely there.”
“I wasn’t… I realized too late Jasper needed saving. That he had to be off limits to everyone,” Bella said quietly as she hugged the blanket.
“Why? He was one of them. You should feel relieved.” Rebekah said simply and shrugged. “Good riddance.”
“Because I realized that Jasper was me. He used to be just like me and I could have been Jasper.” She looked at the siblings and then decided to tell Jasper’s story as he told her once, followed by the conclusion that Alice must have been grooming him, now that Bella knew who Alice was. “They promised him everything he wanted; a family, a mate, peace… they offered to help him with his bloodlust. They turned him into the person he was by showing him their way of affection, validated him, made sure he felt safe and all that shit.”
“But Jasper isn’t you, love,” Kol said as he caressed her back with his fingertips. “You figured out that something was wrong, all on your own.”
Bella hit him in the chest as she glared at him for a moment.
“Sorry, cuddles. Force of habit.” He winked at her. “Continue.”
“I know he isn’t me but if you hadn’t gone back with me, I would have gone back to him because I didn’t have any other options. Jasper didn’t have an option either as Alice offered him ‘the only chance to survive’.”
“I honestly don’t care,” Rebekah replied. “He made his choice, as did you. He became one of them and you did not. At least those wolves listened to you when you told Jacob to leave Edward to you.”
“But that doesn’t make it right,” Bella muttered. “We could have at least given him a chance.”
Rebekah snorted. “Darling, if you look deep enough all beings have their problems, their crucibles they need saving from. Do you intend to save all of them? Will you spare Edward at the last minute?”
“No, no of course not but…”
“Now that the wolves have taken their revenge on the Cullens, I expect a war between the two parties and that’s good, let the wolves deal with most of them as well as they can.” Rebekah then smiled. “Now, who do you think they’ll go after next?”
“Alice,” Bella replied after a moment of thinking. “Because she will be hellbent on revenge and she’ll be looking into the future non-stop to see if she can get it.”
“Yeah… well… I’d better secure the entire house instead of just your window, Bella. I know Jasper’s death isn’t your fault, but if she’s anything like the Mary-Alice I knew…” he then smiled widely at Bella. “But, before the wolves interrupted, you were amazing. I’m proud of you.”
“I have to admit, that was something alright,” Rebekah acknowledged before she got up and brought her mug to the sink. “You were very brave. Now, I’m going to leave the two of you alone and I’m going to take care of something, don’t wait up,” she said with a smile before running out of the door.
“Where is she going?”
“I don’t know, Cuddles, but I’d better get started on protecting this house from unwanted vampires,” Kol replied as he got up himself. “Drink your tea, you’ll feel better after.”
With Rebekah not being home when they went to bed, Bella decided to sleep in her old room again and shared the bed with Kol. Not that Rebekah not being there was an excuse. The last couple of days she had gone to bed, as planned, figured she couldn’t sleep after three hours and had made her way downstairs to Kol, crawled into bed and fell fast asleep. She felt a little bit stupid about it because anything could happen – and maybe Bella wanted something to happen – but Kol wasn’t an ordinary teenager and nothing happened.
Frustrating, maybe, but they hadn’t even kissed yet. Or they weren’t actually a couple and that was a good thing, wasn’t it? She even hated it to admit it to herself that Kol made her feel safe, happy and wanted, not as if she was something else other than herself, like Edward had made her feel after he wanted her back after dumping her in the woods. It was possible it was because Kol made her make her own choices, her decisions and was hands off, yet he was with her all the time.
They both woke up around 5.30 in the morning because someone was yelling outside the house underneath the window. It took Bella a moment to recognize the voice as Rebekah’s. “Bloody hell, Kol! You tosspot! I can’t get in! If I get my hands on you, I will kill you! Wake up you bloody wanker and let me in!”
Kol sleepily grinned as he poked Bella in her side. “You’d better go and invite her back in, Cuddles,” he muttered. “I may have accidentally revoked her privileges.”
“You’re mean,” Bella whined as she rolled over and instead of rolling towards Kol to push him out of bed, she fell off the bed. “Ow,” she said as she hit the deck and got up, rubbing her elbows as she walked towards the window.
“Are you alright?” Kol laughed as he was sitting up in the bed.
“Yes,” Bella said and opened the window. “Your brother is an asshole,” she said as she looked out of the window into the darkness. “Are you coming in, Rebekah?”
“Thank you!” Rebekah said thankful and before Bella knew it, she had gone through the door and stopped right in the middle of the bedroom. Her clothes looked somewhat torn and there was some blood on Rebekah’s face, but the smile she was currently wearing was freaky. Almost maniacal.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Kol said as he got out of bed. “You look properly disheveled, sister.”
“I took care of Charlie’s problem with the missing children,” Rebekah said with a shrug. “I went all the way to Seattle and found those missing children.”
“Oh, that’s great!” Bella smiled widely.
“Depends if them having been turned into Cold Ones is great… sure,” she replied. “Took care of this redhead and her second in command, the blaze was delightful!”
“Wait, what?” Bella blinked. “Redhead?”
“Yeah, she sneered something about nobody could kill her because she was the almighty Victoria and whatnot…”
“You killed Victoria?”
“Yes, you know her?”
Bella hugged Rebekah as a huge relief fell off her shoulders. “Thank you! I thought for sure that she was coming after me.”
“She was, actually,” Rebekah gently pushed Bella away from her. “I’m smelly, Bella, don’t hug me. Anyway, I sent her newborn vampires merrily on their way to create mayhem throughout America. Should keep those Volturi quite busy over the next few months and may leave you alone for a while longer.”
“Rebekah… I…”
“I know, little dove, I know, and you’re welcome. I’m going to take a shower, get a few hours of sleep and then we’re going to school, yeah?”
Bella nodded. “We have a free first period.”
“Brilliant. Good night you two,” she smiled before disappearing from the bedroom.
Bella watched Rebekah disappear and then looked at Kol. “What just happened?”
“She’s in her happy place, Cuddles, let’s go back to bed,” Kol said as he took her hand and pulled her back to the bed. “Who was Victoria?”
Bella sighed as she climbed back in bed and snuggled up against Kol. She was surprised he wasn’t making a big deal out of it. He didn’t have a bed to his own and hers was perfectly fine up in the attic with Rebekah. Maybe she was getting too comfortable around him, but if he didn’t appreciate that, she knew he would say something about it as he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. “The last remaining nomad of James’ coven, she was James’ mate.”
He smiled as he pulled the covers over them and put his arm around her to invite her to snuggle up even further. Bella was a funny little human, she didn’t seem to be remotely uncomfortable to sleep with him in one bed. He was grateful, though, that in the morning she left to get dressed without him being present because he wasn’t quite sure if he could control his bodily functions if she undressed herself in front of him. Bella had this magical thing about her that made his thoughts sound like a cheesy lunatic. – What was he getting himself into? “What is it with you and attracting so much trouble?”
“I don’t know,” she smiled up at him. “Guess I hang out with the wrong crowd.”
Bella wasn’t surprised by the lack of Cullens the next day in school. Or the next and the day after. In fact, the entire week had been Cullen free. For the first time in a while it gave her the room to breathe and do fun things with Rebekah and Kol after school. They went hiking in the Olympic Park and visit the Marymere Falls or go to the ice cream shop to gorge on ice cream and exit the shop with a brain freeze.
Bella found that Rebekah was often strolling behind her and Kol, and she wondered why that was. Even the slightest hint of Bella trying to include Rebekah in her and Kol’s conversation was being deflected by her. Bella hated it that Rebekah was acting like the third wheel because she was trying not to make her feel that way.
It was Friday afternoon and Kol and Bella were sitting in the outside seating area of the coffee shop. Rebekah had ducked into a clothing shop across the street, saying that she had resisted the temptation long enough and that she was going to shop until she figuratively dropped. Bella and Kol weren’t interested in doing so and decided to wait outside with a nice cup of coffee.
“Is it just me or does this feel like we’re a mum and dad? Waiting for their daughter to emerge from school?” Kol pointed at the shop his sister was in.
“I wouldn’t know,” Bella replied with a shrug. “My mom always dragged me into stores because I hate shopping for clothes and Charlie usually just gives me money while he goes fishing.”
Kol winced at that. “He wants to go fishing tomorrow.”
“I know,” she grinned as she looked at him. “It’ll be fun. Rebekah wants us to go shopping for the graduation party anyway, which would be no fun for you.”
“But I don’t want you to suffer all by yourself.”
“Fishing with Charlie is fun and maybe Billy will come with. Billy’s full of stories about his tribe could be interesting for you.”
Kol huffed and took a sip of his hot coffee. He’d rather just spend the day with Bella, couldn’t his sister go on that fishing trip? Rebekah used to be better at it than him anyway, he could never sit still long enough. Should he scare the fish away, Charlie would have a great story to tell Bella. And maybe, Charlie could tell Kol more about Bella as she was still a mystery to him. Mysteries needed to be solved.
It would be stupid to admit out loud that even though they had spent about two weeks together, that it felt as if he’d known her for years. Because it wasn’t true and he wished it was.
“Can I ask you something?”
Kol could see that Bella was uncomfortable and now he wondered what he wanted to ask. “Sure, Cuddles, you can always ask me anything. If I’m going to answer it is something else entirely.”
“You’re such a troll,” she grinned. “I don’t think like this anymore but for a while, with Edward, I wanted to become a vampire. Mainly because I wouldn’t be able to stand to grow old while he didn’t. I figured it would also cure me of my clumsiness. I then realized I didn’t want to turn into an asshole. Maybe only to kill him,” she said while a faint smile formed on her face. “But you’ve been a vampire. Don’t you ever miss it?”
“I’ve traveled the world and I’ve enjoyed myself. I’ve seen things that you wouldn’t believe and I had the time to do what I wanted, when I wanted,” he said, careful with his choice of words. “But with everything positive there’s a lot of negative. You don’t get to think about that when you’re a vampire because nothing matters. Every emotion gets heightened. The fact that I never felt wanted by my siblings hurt, a lot, and I acted out. I slaughtered a lot of people simply because I was bored. I was a nuisance, to be honest with you. I didn’t care about what I did because my siblings didn’t care about me. I turned off my humanity and had fun. I played with my food. Didn’t care about rules…”
“Nothing’s changed then,” Bella said with a grin. “You still play with your food.”
“My sister wants to be human more than anything. She values humanity and she wants to start a family and grow old. A couple of years ago, some idiotic people down in Mystic Falls found out that there was a cure for vampirism. This jump started this whole rat race between different factions. Klaus wanted the cure so that it couldn’t be used on him. Rebekah wanted it because she wanted to be human and some young vampires wanted it for one of their mates who had been accidentally turned. It was a mess of epic proportions. And then there was me, trying to sabotage all their efforts because by finding the cure, they would find the first immortal being ever. And he would bring hell on earth if they’d wake him.”
“Seriously?”
“Not just humans do stupid things for the weirdest reasons, Cuddles. And frankly, I don’t blame them but hell on earth was just a too big of a price to pay for the cure. And it could only cure one vampire so yeah, not good.”
“What happened?”
“I was the idiot who went against everyone, I died, of course. I truly died. Stake and flames. Poof! I ended up on the Other Side where I plotted my revenge against the person who killed me…”
“What?” Bella said laughing.
“Hey, I liked my life. I hated it, but I liked it, what else was I supposed to do? We Mikaelsons are a vengeful bunch because there’s nothing better than revenge. Besides, I was pissed off because I got killed by a pesky teenager, do you have any idea what that does to the ego of a thousand year old vampire?”
“Typical,” she shook her head, laughing. “What’s the Other Side? Heaven?”
“No, more like a hell for supernatural beings who died. It sucked. And because Silas was back, it was collapsing. Well, it was a lot more complicated than that, but he set it off. And I didn’t want to disappear for good. I was lucky that my mother yanked me out before I got sucked into nothingness.”
“But now you’re human. You could turn back into a vampire.”
“Not like the one I used to be, pet. I was an Original, I couldn’t be killed… well, not without effort. If I become a vampire now, I will lose my witchiness – again – and people could kill me with ease. I value my life too much for that to happen. Klaus’ temperament hasn’t really changed in all these years and I don’t want to die. I also think that Beks would be the first person to kill me for giving up my humanity so…” he said with a chuckle. “Trust me, your decision to not turn into a glittery vampire after all is a good one. You and I wouldn’t have been sitting here and talking, for one.”
Bella shuddered. No, she would still be with them, meek as a lamb and waiting for Edward to turn her. She could understand where Kol was coming from, it was one of the things she had considered if she’d turn; what if she and Edward would have a falling out in a hundred years? What would she do? How would her transition enhance all her emotions? She knew she currently held an unhealthy amount of rage in her system, would that have turned with her? And would it have been possible for her to go off the reservation sort to speak? Quite likely.
Besides, she didn’t want to live too long in a world without her parents. Everything had to progress in a natural order and while she had accepted the world around her, being a vampire wasn’t natural. Or maybe it was for them. It wasn’t for her and, therefore, shouldn’t judge.
“And also, your clumsiness is endearing, Cuddles, gives men like me to be the hero to come to your rescue,” Kol grinned. “And I’m generally awesome so it will balance out your habit of falling over and bumping into things.”
“For now, all is well in the world.” Bella drank the remaining coffee and scrunched her nose. “Did you just honestly say that you’re my hero without missing a beat?”
“Glad you think so too, Bella,” Kol beamed at her.
“I didn’t say….”
“Cuddles, all I hear is you saying I’m your hero.”
“But…” Bella’s cheeks had lit up to a wonderful shade of red, and not for the first time in the past week. Without the Cullens showing their faces she was a lot freer in the way she behaved, a lot happier and a lot more easy to tease.
“It’s okay, I can take the responsibility that comes with being your hero and bedwarmer.”
“You’re sleeping with him?” Edward’s voice sounded from behind them and he didn’t sound too pleased. “Are you out of your mind?!”
Before she knew it, Kol got lifted out of his chair and pushed against the wall. “Edward!” she cried out. “Leave him alone!”
“It’s okay, Cuddles,” Kol grinned as he looked at Edward. He then started to think about the most vulgar and exciting things he could do with Bella just to piss off the vampire even further. Kol knew that with one shout, his sister would come to the rescue anyway if his magic couldn’t do the job by itself.
“I’m going to kill you,” Edward growled as he tightened his grip on the human boy. “Maybe I will, to stop you from poisoning Bella’s mind. You’ve corrupted her enough as it is.”
“Oh please stop,” Kol snorted as he managed to push the vampire off of him and made sure he was standing between Bella and the raging vampire. “You’re a pathetic excuse for a man. Get it through your thick skull that she doesn’t want to be yours anymore, mate.”
“She has no say in the matter,” Edward spat at Kol, unable to move from his spot. Kol was glad that at least that part of his magic worked too, although he was unsure if it’d work on more than one raging Cold One. “The Volturi will come after her if she doesn’t stay with me. If I don’t turn her.”
“That excuse is becoming old, mate,” He replied with a sigh. “You’re trying to tell her these horror stories, that she should be afraid. Won’t work, she’s fearless and you are not getting her back. She doesn’t want you, Edward. She’s had enough of your shit.”
“She’s right here and can talk for herself,” Bella grumbled.
“I know, pet,” Kol replied as he took a quick look at her before turning his attention back to Edward. “I’m not quite sure if Edward knows, though. Leave her alone, mate, you’re starting to sound really desperate right now, but that’s your thing, isn’t it?”
Edward looked around Kol, Kaleb, to look at Bella. “You do know that the reason Seth and Jasper are dead is because of your new friends, don’t you, Bella?”
“Oh, that’s low,” Kol inhaled sharply as a fed up Bella got to her feet and pushed Edward away from them.
“It’s your fault, Edward. Get the fuck out of my life.”
“Don’t worry, when he’s done with you, I’ll be still here to pick up the pieces, love,” Edward said as he took a step back.
Bella visibly shuddered as she closed her eyes to will herself not to throw up the coffee she just had. “Go away.”
“Did you know he has impure thoughts about you?”
“I give up,” Bella said as she threw her hands in the air and collected her bag before she tugged on Kol’s arm. “Come on, let’s join Rebekah. The idea of shopping is all of a sudden very appealing.”
“Honestly, I don’t have those thoughts about you,” Kol said quickly as they crossed the street. “I just… I knew he was mind raping me so I—”
“I don’t mind if you do, to be honest,” Bella admitted as they stopped in front of the store and looked across the street where Edward was still watching them. “Because I have them too,” she smiled up to Kol. “About you, not about myself because that would be crazy,” she added as she stammered.
Her face turned the beautiful shade of red that he liked so much on her and decided to tease her a little bit. It was endearing how novice she was about the whole flirting game, had she even been kissed before? “Really?” Kol smirked as he ran his hand through his hair as if he was thinking about something – which he wasn’t. “Because I do have some thoughts about you and me. I’m a handsome fella and you’re not too bad looking either and some thoughts include you and me… On a rug in front of—” Kol couldn’t even finish his sentence as Bella had pulled him down to her level and had pressed her lips against his. All he was able to do after she released him from her grasp was blink at her. She had surprised him by her boldness and he wanted more.
It only took him a moment to realize that she probably kissed him because of Edward. He didn’t even dare to look across the street, but did it anyway, and saw that the wanker had gone. Kol could feel how Bella cupped his chin and turned his head back towards hers, so she could kiss him again. This time, her tongue sought entrance to his mouth and he granted it as he put his arms around her and pulled her closer.
“Oh, good,” Rebekah’s voice sounded next to them. “You’re finally kissing. Well done, you two. Let’s go home.”
Instead of things being immediately awkward between her and Kol, Bella found that nothing was wrong. Kol had the goofiest smile plastered on his face as they drove home. Bella couldn’t help but look at him in the rearview mirror whenever it was possible. He probably thought she only kissed him to get rid of Edward, but that wasn’t the case. Yes, it helped that Edward ran away like the spoiled brat that he was, but she did it because it felt right. That and Kol had it coming.
She grinned to herself as she parked her car in her usual spot. Sometimes, Kol just talked too much and she had now found a great way to shut him up.
“We are going to Port Angeles to shop tomorrow, aren’t we, Bella? Because I didn’t see anything I fancied in the shops here in Forks,” Rebekah said as she pulled five bags out of the trunk of the car. “Not for the graduation dance anyway.”
“Yes, Rebekah, when Charlie and Kol are going fishing, we’re going to drive to Port Angeles and I’ll be your personal dress up doll.”
“Goodie,” Rebekah said with a grin on her face and then got into the house. “Great job on handling Doucheward!”
“She is right,” Kol echoed Rebekah’s sentiment as he and Bella walked towards the house. In true Bella fashion, she had denied him the courtesy of carrying in the bag of groceries. “Was it just me or did he become worse?”
“He hates losing. When he loses, he tries to be more persistent,” Bella said with a shrug as she put the bag of groceries on the counter. “Persuasion was always Jasper’s thing. Or Carlisle’s… Edward isn’t that subtle.” She smirked as she unpacked the bag. “All hands on deck, I need a lot of stuff chopped up.”
“What?” Kol blinked at her.
“You two are going to help me cook.”
“No, I am not,” Rebekah said as she gathered her bags again. “I’m going to try all of these on again,” she said before disappearing up the stairs.
Kol was leaning against the table with his hands crossed over his chest as he looked at Bella. “One kiss and you want to domesticate me?” He asked jokingly.
“Two kisses and no. This was my idea before that,” she replied as she put down a chopping board and a knife. “Start chopping.”
“You just want me to do the onions so you can see me cry,” he chuckled as he washed his hands and grabbed an onion.
“No,” she smiled as she cut up the meat. “I just don’t want to do all the work by myself. And you’ll have to do smaller chunks than that.”
Kol snorted and shook his head as he did as he was told. After two onions, a carrot, and a pepper, he put the knife down and leaned against the counter to watch Bella work. “About that kiss…”
Oh god, she thought as she dropped the knife in the sink and looked at Kol, panic clearly on her face. “I— I’m sorry… I thought… I mean… you…” she stammered. She had thought of not doing it, but he had been sending her the signals, hadn’t he? And he had the goofiest smile ever on his face on the drive back so it couldn’t have been that bad, could it? What if that had been a pretense?
“Bella, stop,” Kol said as he put his hands firmly on her shaking shoulders. “Nothing’s wrong, Cuddles, breathe.”
She had been doing so well and now she was freaking out because of a potential mistake she had made. Bella was angry with herself for freaking out about the panic attack. She was being stupid. It’s that she thought she heard Kol telling her to breathe, otherwise she wouldn’t have let out a breath she wasn’t aware of she was holding and gulped in some air. And her body only went into panic mode for one simple reason; she really liked him. If that kiss had been out of bounds, things would grow uncomfortable and she didn’t want that to happen.
“Hey, are you listening to me?” He bent his knees a little to look at her. “Nothing’s wrong. That kiss was amazing.”
Why were his hands on her? She shrugged them off and started pacing around the kitchen. How on earth was she going to get out of this? Would he stop trying to help her with Edward? Did she have to go back? No, that couldn’t happen, she’d rather disappear before that would happen. She had been doing so well and now she’d fucked up.
She was forgetting something. Right, breathing. She kept pacing as she took deep breaths. Maybe Kol was right, they had to talk about that kiss. He needed to tell her that it had been a bad thing to do, that he wasn’t into her like that. Yes, she needed to hear him say that so she could prepare herself for the worst.
Bella managed to calm herself down as she dried off her tears with the sleeve of her shirt and stopped right in front of him. Poor Kol looked like someone who was about to jump out of its skin out of anger. Or was it worry? She knew she’d find out soon enough. “Sorry. I’m sorry about that,” she said as she let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry for the kiss. It shouldn’t have happened. I—”
Kol kissed her to prove a point and to shut her up. He ran a hand through her hair before breaking off the kiss. “As I said… nothing’s wrong, Cuddles,” he said with a whisper and planted a kiss on top of her head. “But we do need to talk about it. Well, I wouldn’t mind if we didn’t and just carried on. But we need to talk about it, because of you and your relationship you’ve recently ended.”
Bella looked at him for a moment and then hopped onto a clean spot on the counter. It had been a while since she had gotten a panic attack like that one. Well, not really. This was a good one, because it was out of fear of losing hope, opposed to the fear of losing everyone she held dear after Kol had wrecked her phone. She felt drained, but since he said that nothing was wrong, she decided to listen. Maybe he just wanted to say that she was a stupid teenager. Maybe it was an age thing.
“Did you kiss me because you like kissing or do you want more out of it?” Kol asked as he placed his hands on her thighs and made sure she couldn’t walk away from him this time. Maybe it was silly of him to ask questions about a stupid kiss, but he happened to like Bella and he didn’t want to prance around on her feelings and emotions. Which was why he was forcing her to talk about her feelings. And forcing himself too – his brothers would probably laugh at him for doing this.
She was a lot stronger than last week, yes, but she was still damaged and he knew that it would take some time for her to heal. He was a witch, sure, but broken spirits could not be mended by magic. He also didn’t want her to do anything before she was well and ready. But if she’d wanted more out of that simple kiss, he’d make sure that she’d get it too.
He was human now and he had made peace with his shortened life but, he didn’t want to rush Bella into anything. He didn’t care much for himself, she was more important and deep down, that scared him. He was always number one. He had always been number one and now she was. “I know what I want, but I want to know what you want before I am telling you what I want. Because you should be allowed to have your own thoughts on the matter.”
Bella swallowed hard. Kol was close to her and was keeping her from walking away again. He also didn’t prompt her on how to answer the question which was hard, because Edward always had prompted her and she would say whatever he wanted to hear. But Kol didn’t. He really wanted her to answer truthfully. “Do you promise things won’t change for the worst if I answer that?” She asked, almost scared to ask.
“I promise. Things can only get better from here on out because we’ll both have a sense of what’s going on. I want to hear your thoughts, Cuddles.”
Bella bit her lip and nodded. “I really like you, Kol and I really liked kissing you. And I don’t want things to get complicated now because you make me feel safe. You seem to see me as a person and not like something that needs to be owned…”
Kol smiled at her as he gave her thighs a squeeze. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? And I’m still here!” When Bella let out a slight chuckle, he continued. “I like you too and that kiss… I wasn’t sure you had it in you,” he grinned. “How about we continue with what we’ve been doing since we met two weeks ago? We’ll just add the kissing to the list of things we like to do together. We’ll see how it works out once you’re truly a free person before we start putting a label on whatever’s going on between us? Let things naturally evolve and all that.”
“You sure?”
“Of course I am, Cuddles!” He smiled widely at her. “Otherwise I wouldn’t suggest it, now, would I?” He poured her a glass of water and handed it to her. “Drink up and tell me what to do. You’re not going to cook after that panic attack of yours.”
